Disneyland 50th Trip Report
This last Friday was Marissa's first birthday, so we decided to celebrate it by taking the girl's to Disneyland. We haven't been to the park since the 50th festivities have begun for fear of the large crowds but were pleasantly surprised to see so few people considering all the marketing the parks have received. We met Kruddler at the kennels around 11:00am but unfortunately he couldn't hang out with us due to his work schedule. Kevin Lee, who by the way isn't exactly my favorite Disney web columist, wrote a pretty decent summary of what's changed in the park since my last visit.
I read about the updated Jungle Cruise from before and made it a point to see this ride. After tricking Arianna that it was just like the Santa Barbara zoo we finally got to go on. In my opinion this attraction is only as good as the skipper you get. My last four skipper's were excellent but unfortunately that day's wasn't so sharp. His jokes were rather lame and he didn't have a good delivery. Nonetheless the changes to the ride were very welcome to this aging attraction. I won't spoil this ride for anybody but let's just say its good to have the guns back.
My favorite all time ride, the Haunted Mansion was closed for annual Nightmare makeover so I didn't get a chance to see the updated effects. I'll save this for a trip after January when the overlay goes away.
We skipped Pirates because Ari gets freaked out when the boat drops in pitch blackness, she still remembers it to avoid it. Her favorites remain Small World and the Mad Tea Party teacups.
The new and improved Space Mountain was a blast. I have to say I miss the old chocolate chip cookie asteroid though. The new track was silky smooth. The ride seems more dark now, you really can't see the track like before the refurb. I didn't dare raise my arms for fear of them being snapped off like twigs.
We got to do a little window shopping on Main Street. My favorite shop, the Disneyana had some cool collectables, including an esqusite replica of the infamous Hat Box Ghost! At "only" $150 I was ready to buy, except they had already sold out. The cast member working that section told me to call back later that week to see if they got more in stock. They had a very cool Pirate as well as Lilo and Stitch as well in addition to some Marc Davis favorites.
We also caught the new Disneyland: The First 50 Magical Years exhibit at the old Lincoln theatre. The film was good and short, the perfect length so little kids don't get distracted. What was really cool was the scale model of the original park as how it was built from the first day. It's amazining how little there was to do compared to now.
The new 50th parade is extremely good, although we were unprepared for the 3:30 showing and only caught half of it so we made it a point to get a good spot for the 7:00 showing. Unfortunately I thought I could buy two mocha's at the Blue Ribbon Bakery and make it back in time for the parade but the long line and the fact that I had to walk all around the parade route made me miss it. Oh well I had my first White Mocha and it was very good. From what Annel was telling me both my girl's absolutely loved the parade and that was the important thing.
After the parade we walked across the esplanade where the new 2006 Honda Civic's are being showcased for Disney's upcoming free car a day promotion. I have to say the new Civic's are really well designed and the coupe is especially sporty looking. If I was looking for a good first car, this would be it.
At the front of DCA I noticed four waves of Disney cast members trying to photograph us. It was pretty funny trying to quickly walk around them like I was a USC running back while avoiding eye contact at the same time. At DCA we caught the rather lame Block Party Bash. It's kind of a odd fusion of the Pixar characters and the boring California theme. It didn't make much sense to me but any kids under 5 seemed to love it. After a quick Chew Chew train run we headed back to Disneyland to eat dinner then catch the Remember...Dreams Come True fireworks show.
We noticed people were already staking spots for the show along Main Street so we decided to skip dinner and plant ourselves in front of the hub which turned out to be the sweet spot for the fireworks show (which wasn't scheduled to start for another hour). The lack of food and the long wait time was well worth it though because this was the best fireworks display that Disney has ever produced. I'm normally an "E "ticket type of guy myself but I'll put myself out there and tell you all that this fireworks show is worth the entire price of admission. Disney aimed for the fences and hit a home run with this one. I'm not going to spoil this for any of you reading this, but all I will say is that the designers of this show understood how to incorporate the attractions of yesteryear along with narration, music, lasers, video projections, castle lighting and even Tinkerbell into one masterpiece of entertainment. I wish I could see this again, it was that good. My only piece of advice is get a spot early by the hub and do not listen to the constant announcements from the Disney loudspeakers that claim excellent viewing is available near Small World. I can't imagine watching this spectacle without having the castle in plain view because of the special effects they only use in this section.
Before I go, I had to take a picture of the whale spouting "a yellow liquid" into the ocean. Why Disney and McDonalds thought this was a good picture, I'll never know.
I read about the updated Jungle Cruise from before and made it a point to see this ride. After tricking Arianna that it was just like the Santa Barbara zoo we finally got to go on. In my opinion this attraction is only as good as the skipper you get. My last four skipper's were excellent but unfortunately that day's wasn't so sharp. His jokes were rather lame and he didn't have a good delivery. Nonetheless the changes to the ride were very welcome to this aging attraction. I won't spoil this ride for anybody but let's just say its good to have the guns back.
My favorite all time ride, the Haunted Mansion was closed for annual Nightmare makeover so I didn't get a chance to see the updated effects. I'll save this for a trip after January when the overlay goes away.
We skipped Pirates because Ari gets freaked out when the boat drops in pitch blackness, she still remembers it to avoid it. Her favorites remain Small World and the Mad Tea Party teacups.
The new and improved Space Mountain was a blast. I have to say I miss the old chocolate chip cookie asteroid though. The new track was silky smooth. The ride seems more dark now, you really can't see the track like before the refurb. I didn't dare raise my arms for fear of them being snapped off like twigs.
We got to do a little window shopping on Main Street. My favorite shop, the Disneyana had some cool collectables, including an esqusite replica of the infamous Hat Box Ghost! At "only" $150 I was ready to buy, except they had already sold out. The cast member working that section told me to call back later that week to see if they got more in stock. They had a very cool Pirate as well as Lilo and Stitch as well in addition to some Marc Davis favorites.
We also caught the new Disneyland: The First 50 Magical Years exhibit at the old Lincoln theatre. The film was good and short, the perfect length so little kids don't get distracted. What was really cool was the scale model of the original park as how it was built from the first day. It's amazining how little there was to do compared to now.
The new 50th parade is extremely good, although we were unprepared for the 3:30 showing and only caught half of it so we made it a point to get a good spot for the 7:00 showing. Unfortunately I thought I could buy two mocha's at the Blue Ribbon Bakery and make it back in time for the parade but the long line and the fact that I had to walk all around the parade route made me miss it. Oh well I had my first White Mocha and it was very good. From what Annel was telling me both my girl's absolutely loved the parade and that was the important thing.
After the parade we walked across the esplanade where the new 2006 Honda Civic's are being showcased for Disney's upcoming free car a day promotion. I have to say the new Civic's are really well designed and the coupe is especially sporty looking. If I was looking for a good first car, this would be it.
At the front of DCA I noticed four waves of Disney cast members trying to photograph us. It was pretty funny trying to quickly walk around them like I was a USC running back while avoiding eye contact at the same time. At DCA we caught the rather lame Block Party Bash. It's kind of a odd fusion of the Pixar characters and the boring California theme. It didn't make much sense to me but any kids under 5 seemed to love it. After a quick Chew Chew train run we headed back to Disneyland to eat dinner then catch the Remember...Dreams Come True fireworks show.
We noticed people were already staking spots for the show along Main Street so we decided to skip dinner and plant ourselves in front of the hub which turned out to be the sweet spot for the fireworks show (which wasn't scheduled to start for another hour). The lack of food and the long wait time was well worth it though because this was the best fireworks display that Disney has ever produced. I'm normally an "E "ticket type of guy myself but I'll put myself out there and tell you all that this fireworks show is worth the entire price of admission. Disney aimed for the fences and hit a home run with this one. I'm not going to spoil this for any of you reading this, but all I will say is that the designers of this show understood how to incorporate the attractions of yesteryear along with narration, music, lasers, video projections, castle lighting and even Tinkerbell into one masterpiece of entertainment. I wish I could see this again, it was that good. My only piece of advice is get a spot early by the hub and do not listen to the constant announcements from the Disney loudspeakers that claim excellent viewing is available near Small World. I can't imagine watching this spectacle without having the castle in plain view because of the special effects they only use in this section.
Before I go, I had to take a picture of the whale spouting "a yellow liquid" into the ocean. Why Disney and McDonalds thought this was a good picture, I'll never know.
posted by Marcos at September 19, 2005
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